This invention relates to an improvement in portable fluorescent lanterns. These lanterns, which are becoming increasingly well-known, are very useful as they provide a self-contained, portable light source which, unlike standard lanterns or flashlights, is capable of illuminating a large area.
There are several types of prior art fluorescent lanterns. Most are generally comprised of a chassis having a reflector assembly and housing the batteries and switching mechanism and a lantern cover which fits over and attaches to the rear of the chassis. In some prior art fluorescent lanterns, the battery and switching mechanism compartments, as well as the reflector assembly are all individual parts which must be fabricated separately. In addition, many subassembly parts, such as the lamp sockets of the reflector, are also made individually. As a result, the prior art fluorescent lanterns are expensive to manufacture because of the separate fabrication of their many parts and the time-consuming assembly the parts require.
Besides being expensive to manufacture, the prior fluorescent lanterns have another major drawback. The electrical connections within the prior art lanterns are generally complex. A number of conductive and specially insulated parts are needed to make the electrical connections within the lamp sockets. In addition, the battery and switch mechanism connections often involve an additional number of electrical parts as well as extensive wiring. Because of the number and nature of the electrical connections in the prior art lanterns, expensive machine operations, such as riveting, and expensive manual operations, such as soldering, wire crimping and sleeving, are necessary which further increase the cost of manufacture. More importantly, however, the large number of parts and connections increase the possibility of lantern failure. Nevertheless, despite their high cost and lack of reliability, these fluorescent lanterns are becoming widely used.